One Bridegroom [Trinity 27]

 

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Isaiah 65:17-25

• 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

• St. Matthew 25:1-13

Grace to you and peace from Him Who is and Who was and Who is to come; from Jesus Christ the faithful Witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

                  

Who speaks to you this Ultimate Sunday saying,

“Five of them were foolish and five were wise”

 

As we are presented the Gospel today, Jesus appears to set up a dichotomy between wise and foolish, almost as if He is showing you this in order to get you to pick a side. However, He includes it in His Word not to get you to pick sides, but to show you your sin in all matters that it may drive you to Confession and Absolution from your pastor, as God has given. 

 

Given that Jesus wants our worldview to be that of “sin in all matters”, you now see other human beings around you and you still see their weaknesses, but now you feel such compassion and forgiveness for their failings, as if they were small children and you yourself feel like a child, worthy of the Master. We are all in the same boat of “lost and condemned”.

 

The fallible parable goes this way: Inside you are two wolves. One fights to bring about evil; anger, envy, sorrow, regret, war with your neighbor. The other fights for “good” allegedly; joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, kindness, etc. The wolf who wins out, as the false parable goes, is the one you feed.

 

Do not read too much into that. It fails on many levels and just wants you to feel guilty, which is what the Law is good for. The point is, to start to bring to your mind the idea of good and evil in the world, not just being “out there” or “at the gate”, but in your house, inside you already. 

 

So we find similarities in our Lord’s parable. There are two groups, in today’s Gospel reading: 5 wise and 5 foolish. Some teach that the implication is that you must choose which side you are on. Will you have your lamps prepped and be ready to shun anyone in need in order to keep your spot at the party? Or will you be negligent and frivolous in order to prove that you can do it on your own?

 

Back to the wolves: you could just let the wolves fight it out and pick the winner, if you were a neutral party in the whole matter. But you’re not neutral. 

Back to the virgins: if you were a neutral observer, then you could just let them act it out and be the 11th virgin that goes where the winners are supposed to go. But you’re not neutral.

 

Back to the world: when you see conflicts, even world conflicts, and have a hard time understanding them, this is why. You cannot blame it on fake news, you cannot blame it on “evil existing”. Although those are both true, you cannot comprehend the world because you are a part of the problem. First and foremost: when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, they are simply reflections of what goes on inside you.

 

Repent. Inside you are two wolves and both are evil and sinful. Outside you is the world you have made and, surprise surprise, it is also evil and sinful. So much so, that you cannot help but be confronted by it everyday. Are you feeling guilty about being a terrible father? Then there is a news story about how someone was a terrible father. Are you feeling guilty about being a poor patriot? Then someone is tearing down monuments on the news. Are you in a fight with family or friends? Then there is a war going on, just for you.

 

You do not get to decide which group of virgins you will side with, neither do you get to decide which side in the world you pick. This is because both sides reside in you. You are both foolish and wise, enemy and friend. You are both at fault and the victim and you just can’t help yourself. This is exactly St. Paul’s lament in Romans 7:

“So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.” (v21-23)

 

Dear Christians. Neither group of virgins gets it right. No not one. Look at your gospel reading again for the condemning verse (5): “they all became drowsy and slept.” They all fell asleep at their post. They all are guilty of dereliction of duty. Make no mistake, it was not the oil that vindicated, or the lamp, or anything else. It was the Bridegroom.

 

How you ask? Well, what was the reason that the virgins were sitting in that place, in the first place? What was most important to them? Why did they wake from their folly? What place was there for them, afterwards?

 

From Psalm 127: “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.”

 

And I’ll add: unless the Lord sleeps first, he who falls alseep, sleeps in vain. As in, death has no meaning and you are simply erased afterwards. Unless the Lord sleeps, there is no firstborn from the dead. Unless the Lord becomes drowsy from suffering, there is no end to suffering. Unless the Lord conquers the dark, there will be no light, even from a lamp.

 

It is Jesus Christ Who is right and Who must invade His own creation to bring right. And He does so in the darkness. He is covered by it and moves in it. It is not His, but it is the reason we can only see as through a mirror darkly (1 Cor 13:12). It is the reason for Isaiah 5:4, “What more could have been done to My vineyard That I have not done in it? [Saith the Lord] Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, Did it bring forth sour grapes?” Oh my people?

 

It matters not. In the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, He even accepts sour grapes, because He intends to change them. 

From John 19, “A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished,’ and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (v. 29-30).

 

Though Jesus had received the sour grapes of all humanity’s iniquities, ineptitudes, and insurrections against God, He still chose to suffer and die to purchase and win the Light of Faith for you. Though Jesus had to invade His own Creation, arriving as a stranger, and was kicked out for His trouble, He continued His work of dying and rising again, for you.

 

In His crucifixion, Jesus sleeps the sleep of death to remove death’s grip from foolish virgins. All of them. From you. He is lifted up on His cross in order to take the field as captain of the fight. He does not choose sides, He takes His own side, fights His own fight, and defeats His enemies in the process, changing death into a sleep that can be ended.

 

The process of building His House, of watching over His City, and of making sour grapes sweet. Meaning, in the crucifixion of Jesus, God pays for those things in His blood. In the Resurrection of Jesus, He builds His Church,  completes His Eternal City, and serves His Wine of Forgiveness which will never sour, in Him.

 

In Christ, the process is completed. So that when we return to our virgins, in the Gospel, and the Bridegroom calls out, they all wake up immediately. They are already under the grace that God had promised them, which automatically placed them on the Guest List for the Wedding, all 10 of them. Yet, even knowing this, they still fought against such grace and mercy.

 

Returning to ourselves, Jesus has knit us from inside our mother’s womb. He has already built for Himself the Temple He wishes to reside in and bestow His saving Faith upon: you. He has already placed you in His City, His Body, and never ceases to watch over you. All of this is only out of Fatherly goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in you. 

 

Even in your divided, sinful nature, Jesus chooses to create salvation for you, from outside of you. It doesn’t matter if you’re plagued with 2 wolves or with 3. It doesn’t matter if you struggle with 3 lives or with 4, 4 worlds or 5. When the Mighty Captain, the Bridegroom, approaches the true Light of the World shines and casts away the darkness.

 

In that Light, we see Jesus alone. All trials shall be like a dream that is past. Forgotten. Lamps, wolves, virgin IQ statuses. There is nothing but the Savior; wounded, yet not dying; defeated, yet the Victor; as slain, yet sitting on the eternal throne of God forever, never to die again. 

 

In this revelation, we are already at the End Times, feeling the pressure of judgement for our daily sins. No matter which side we choose or which way we run, the Lord of Forgiveness goes with, so that we realize our sinful nature, give thanks for God’s revelation, and run to absolution, which you have already heard proclaimed over you today.

Thanks, body and soul [Day of Thanks]

 

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

Readings from Scripture

• 1 Timothy 2:1-8
• St Matthew 6:25-33

Grace to you all and Peace from God our Father and the LORD Jesus, the Christ.

 

Who speaks to us from our Epistle heard this evening saying,

“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus”

 

In our rush to be thankful people, we have thrown out the word “thankful”. The only reason why Thanksgiving has not been cancelled yet, is because we can define “thanks” however we want, thereby redefining it into oblivion. We can even be thankful for “evil” and say that God gave it to us, that He made me this way, essentially calling evil good, and good evil.

 

It may surprise some of you to learn that when St. Paul or any of the Apostles preach, they are speaking God’s own words. That is how the New Testament gets its authority, as St Peter declares, “men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet 1:21). These words carry God’s own weight behind them.

 

We make this statement, not just to reassert our belief in the inerrancy of holy Scripture, but also to call attention to the Holy Spirit’s work of “carrying”. As in, He has to be the person to carry you to God, to admit you into God’s presence, in order that you be able to pray and ask God as dear children ask their dear father and offer thanksgiving.

 

Lest we forget, doing that is humanly impossible. Ritual purity is the prerequisite for admission into God’s presence and receiving blessings from Him at His sanctuary. It was necessary in the Old Testament Temple and it still is today. Even moreso now that Christ has torn the veil in two and the Holy of Holiest places is wide open to everyone today. 

 

As Psalm 24 says, “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully” (v.3-4)

 

In the Old Testament, the Lord instituted a Thank Offering, which is why we’re talking about this today: God did it first, not the pilgrims or FDR. The Thank Offering was a part of the Peace Offering, which just means that on top of sacrificing a bull or lamb or goat for peace with God, a man would have to include leavened bread in the offering, not to be burned, but to be eaten. 

 

A second uniqueness to the Thank Offering was that it was to be eaten on the same day that it was presented, thereby connecting the ritual with the presentation of the offering, and the performance of the song of Thanksgiving in the sanctuary. Meaning, the Thank Offering, and really any offering to God, was both spiritual and physical. You had to make the offering, but then participate in the Service also, or it was invalid.

 

In Jeremiah 33:10-11, the prophet had announced that when God restored his people, they would bring thank offerings to him. This is a prophecy of the messianic age. The age when all sacrifices would cease, except the offering of thanksgiving. 

 

So, after Christ's great sacrifice of atonement, the church has no sacrifice to bring to God the Father except the sacrifice of praise. Melanchthon makes a similar affirmation in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession (XXIV 9-77). There, in his discussion on whether the Mass is a sacrifice or not, he distinguishes the eucharistic sacrifices from the propitiatory sacrifices. He argues that since Christ has offered himself to atone for all our sins, we can only offer God a sacrifice of thanksgiving and nothing else.

 

The whole of the Divine Service is therefore an offering of thanksgiving and praise to God the Father as we receive Christ's body and blood. The heart of that service is our reception of the Lord's Supper; it is in itself an act of thanksgiving and praise, for as often as we eat that meal we rejoice in God's grace and proclaim Christ's death for our redemption until He comes (1 Cor 11:26; Ap XXIV 35-36).

 

Thus, it is our Mediator, Jesus Christ, Who makes what is evil, good. That is, He covers it with His Blood. Ourselves and our thanks are filled with sin, filled with evil, and only in Christ is our evil exchanged for His Good. 

 

Those outside of the thankfulness of God, lead miserable lives. For them, there is always the next manufactured tragedy, just around the corner. For them, it is always a lack of resources, a lack of funding, and a lack of conformity. They realize that they are on their own to produce thankfulness artificially.

 

Thanksgiving in front of God is never cancelled, because Jesus is always giving thanks and all you have to do is pray for that thanksgiving to be among you also. We give thanks that we have been brought to faith in Christ. We give thanks that Faith that leads us to families, meals with them, and meals with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

 

So yes, “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thess. 5:18), but let God be thankful for you and let Him offer His sacrifice of thanksgiving, Jesus, in His Divine Service, for you.

 

 

Made Mindful [Trinity 26]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Daniel 7:9-14

• 2 Peter 3:3-14

• St. Matthew 25:31-46

Grace to you and peace from Him Who is and Who was and Who is to come; from Jesus Christ the faithful Witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

                  

Who speaks to you this Penultimate Sunday saying,

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.”

 

Along with these Gospel words, the Lord also speaks through St. Peter in the Epistle reading saying, “Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.” This Word of God directly connects to today’s Collect of the day where we prayed for mindfulness and holiness of living, from the Lord.

 

This is as it should be. This is God’s Will for Holy Scripture in our lives. That it is connected and connective. The whole of the Bible is all connected in the story of salvation through Jesus Christ and it connects you to it by Word and Sacrament. Therefore, for today we are pointed to how we await the Final Day of Judgment, that is “without spot or blemish and at peace”, in His Divine Service and in His Nunc Dimittis, where He tells us to depart in peace.

 

One of the things we are confronted with today, by God, is mindfulness. 

 

When you eventually turn to God in prayer in your life, what is it that you usually ask for? “What do you want me to do, Lord?”, right? Well, dear Christians, the Lord has answered your prayers today, for you have been given a glimpse, a first-showing preview of what God will be looking for on the Last Day of Judgment.

 

That is, feeding the hungry, un-thirsting the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, and being present for the prisoners. There you have it. The laundry list you have all been praying for in order to be doing God’s will and gaining your proper position as a blessed one on the Last Day, is in your hands.

 

So, what more is there? Go. Do likewise, Jesus said, right (Lk 10:37)? Go and show mercy to your family, to your neighbor, to your enemies. Maybe you might have a little left-over mercy for Jesus, too, and allow Him an hour or so of your precious time, each week. 

 

Is there something else? Oh. You are afraid because of the goats? You are afraid because they also performed acts of mercy, the same acts of mercy you are commanded to do, and yet they received punishment, instead of blessing, and you want to know why and what’s the difference?

 

Maybe that list of holy works isn’t what you thought it was.

Maybe there is something else that glorious and righteous Judge is looking for.

Maybe you need to be mindful, that is to remember what it is that brought you before God in the first place.

 

Repent. Yes, be mindful of your acts. Your words, thoughts, and deeds all need to be taken captive to Christ (2 Cor 10:5) in order that, having been made a new creation in Christ, you begin to see it as well. But being captive to Christ means more than just you working hard. It means being a servant of Christ, that is doing what He wants to do, not just what you want, and as we have hopefully proven, works are not enough.

 

Jesus commanded at the Last Supper, “But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember” (Jn 16:4). And what was the Resurrection proclamation? “But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb…two men stood by them in dazzling apparel…said to them, ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you’…And they remembered his words” (St. Luke 24:1-8).  

 

Immediately, they remembered His words about His Resurrection. That though this Temple be destroyed, in three days, the Son of Man shall rise again (Jn 2:19). Once the fact of the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead had begun to cement into their sin-filled brains, they began to remember other things.

 

They remembered the Palm Sunday crowd, which had witnessed Lazarus come out of the tomb, crying out for salvation (Jn 12:16). They remembered the hillsides where Jesus had fed multiple multitudes (Mk 8:18-19). They remembered how He walked on water, healed the sick, gave peace, and sat on the throne of the Ancient of Days.

They remembered that He remembers.

 

Even the thief on the cross knew that God remembers. He had faith in God’s remembrance and his faith saved him. He had heard the Lord’s Word say, “God has remembered his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations” (Psalm 105:8).

 

And the most wonderful thing they remembered? That God is a God Who forgets. This is the most important, because this is what the Apostles trusted in; this is what the thief trusted in, and this is what we trust in. From Jeremiah 31, “And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and teach his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (v.34).

 

The sheep had no faith in their works, or even their own ability to remember. Instead they trusted in the memory of Jesus and in the forgetfulness of Jesus. The memory of Jesus to step down from heaven, in the flesh, and save His people from their sins with His Body and Blood. And the forgetfulness of Jesus to cast those sins as far as the east is from the west, such that only holiness, righteousness, and blessedness remain (Ps 103:12).

 

You prayed that God grant you mindfulness of the Last Day. This mindfulness, you have now seen, will not only remind you that the Last Day is coming, but will also urge you to commune more often with the great and glorious Judge, Jesus Christ. You will be made mindful that the Church is His very Body, so being with that Body, you are already prepared for the Last Day.

 

And finally, in this rescued and forgiven Church, the Holy Ghost stirs you up to Holy Living. To loving God, loving your neighbor, and continuing to immerse yourself in the holy things Jesus presents to you in Word and Sacrament. Communing with these gifts, you find that faith has you waiting, without spot or blemish in Christ, and at peace in His Divine Service.

 

Thus is our proof of the Holy Spirit being among us today. First, that we are remembering Christ as He said, “the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (Jn 14:26).

 

Second, we believe and confess with Daniel, that the Son of Man is seated in Communion, preaching the separation of saint and sins, the blessedness of being baptized into the Father’s kingdom, and the entrance into the righteousness and eternal life of the Lamb of God through His Body and Blood.

 

The Golden Son [Trinity 25]

 

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Exodus 32:1-20

• 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

• St. Matthew 24:15-28

...grace to you and peace from Him Who is and Who was and Who is to come; from Jesus Christ the faithful Witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

                  

On this antepenultimate Sunday, our Lord speaks directly to us saying,

“So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.”

 

After today, there are only two more Sundays until the end. Antepenultimate. Jesus comes quickly.

This day we face The Judgement, as Scripture teaches in our Gospel reading, as God intends we do, and why He included it in His Word. Not to be repetitive, but this points us to the fact of a real, actual judgement. If Jesus was not spared, you will not be spared. We apply this to life by realizing this and receive our lives, whatever they may look like, with thanksgiving.

 

So let us attempt to explain the Old Testament reading through the eyes of the New.

Again, these seemingly cryptic words from God, in the Gospel, bounce off our noggins and land anywhere but in our understanding. “Abomination of desolation”? “Holy Place”? What do these words mean? There are no specifics given such as time, date, or name. Jesus says that Daniel spoke of it, but he didn’t explain it at all.

 

As best as we can come up with is that maybe the Holy Place is the Temple in Jerusalem and the abomination is false idols for worship? 

That’s nice and all, but that sticks this event all the way in the past, having nothing to do with us today. The temple is gone and so there are no holy places for these idols to be set up. This is not what God intends with His Word, ever, so there must be something we are missing.

 

Of course, the first interpretation is that of the Last Day. That when we see things go belly up, we should not stick around and gawk. Get your things and get out. But what are those things, especially in light of us constantly believing we are in the last days?

 

The Golden Calf will guide us, here! Ha. 

But make no mistake, the drinking of the Golden Calf was part judgement, but all teaching from God, so we must heed the lesson as well. Our difficulty starts when we turn to commentaries to explain the situation to us, because all the commentaries stop at “the people had to drink to bear with and atone for their own sin”. No mercy in those words.

 

Certainly, there is that lesson to learn. That God’s Law is holy and righteous and He threatens to punish all who hate Him and break His commandments. However, the Lord is merciful, not only giving us the Promised Land, a place to flee, but also never leaving our side. So, Moses and Israel were all thankful that the judgement was not the end of the story.

 

First, the Golden Calf was an idol, a false idol. The Lord has told us that false idols “have no real existence” (1 Cor 8:4), meaning that there is only one God here. False idols are created in and live in the heart. This is why Jesus can say, “all who make them become like them, so is everyone who has faith in them” (Ps 115:8).

 

Now what’s with the drinking? Is it some sort of petty, add-on curse that God enacts because He’s pouting over His people choosing other gods over Him? It seems a step too far, but there was the warning in Numbers 5:24, “And he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings the curse, and the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain.”

 

The point here is that eating and drinking are religious acts. Eating food sacrificed to idols is communing with them, agreeing with them, following them (1 Cor 8:10). Jesus said that it is not what goes into a man that makes him unclean, but what comes out. If you are eating with idols, you confess their greatness, because their food does not change you; you change you.

 

It is your sinful insides that not only create idols, but sing their praises. The Golden Calf is just one, visible example of the sin inside. Idols can be invisible, for they are simply those things which you fear, love, and trust. The Israelites couldn’t trust in the God Who works through His own means, they needed more.

 

But more was just what they thought they needed. It was a lie. The Golden-Calf-water did not increase the curse, but revealed it. What was already evil on the inside, was shone on the outside. If you are going to play with false gods, you are going to end up like them. And in the final judgement, that will be mouths, that do not speak; eyes, that do not see; ears, that do not hear; noses, that do not smell; hands, that do not feel; feet, that do not walk, and they do not make a sound in their throat (Ps 115:5-7).

 

Sound familiar? Jesus would always cry out, “he who has ears to hear let him hear”, right? This means you were not made for sin and death. You were not created to receive things that are not from God or God Himself. Since you have received eyes, ears and all your members, your reason and all your senses from Him, if you commune with something “not Him”, you undo all of it.

 

Repent. So if by faith you have been made a temple of the Holy Ghost, then you in your sin have stood the abomination in that holy place, inside you. And if the abomination is inside, then to where are you going to flee? Sin is a cancer, a stage 5 cancer. It has spread into every corner and crevasse. You are not only dead in your sin, even as you sit there, but it would be impossible to separate you from your sin without killing you.

 

The Temple is gone. There is no more “holy place” not just to find comfort, but even to meet God. This is because our sin kicked Him out. Sin crucifies the Lord of Creation. That is the true Abomination. 

 

Dear Christians, the crucifix is also the Primary symbol of the Church. And it is for the same reason, too. Just like the bronze serpent on the pole, we need to look at what sin has conceived in our hearts and in the world and repent. “…mine, mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadly pain” (LSB 449) as we sing. Yet it is in that pain, in those wounds, that Christ brings us healing and righteousness.

 

Jesus takes on your cancer. He absorbs it. It becomes His as He continues to heal and forgive you. Yes forgive, because with the sickness comes a spirit of darkness that lies and says “God’s not worth it”; “The crucifixion is not worth it”. So your forgiveness also corrupts the Savior, also causes a price to be paid in blood.

 

And the scourging and crucifixion of Jesus is His surgery that removes the root. Jesus, being the Root of Jesse, uproots Original Sin, and replants Himself. He plants His cross on top of sin, death, and the devil, ridding His world of these things forever. His Body and Blood nourishes that Tree of Life, that we may approach it and find that heavenly medicine ourselves.

 

Because, how do you take care of your insides? How do you fight cancer that you cannot see? You ingest. If meals eaten with your idols cause your death, then a meal eaten with God causes life, as He said, “they ate and drank and they saw God” (Ex 24:11).

 

Jesus is your chemo-therapy. He is a poison to your sin. It is not a pleasant procedure to go through, when you must divorce yourself from your sins. It is painful. It is the way of the cross. However, where the gold of the Golden Calf condemned, the Gold of the Son of God (Job 22:25) gives life. That is, in His Body and Blood there is forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.

 

Jesus is ground into the dust of the tomb for you. He offers more than just a powdered drink of bitterness and cursing. Though you look at His crucifix and see your sins, the Crucified Savior does not condemn, but places Himself in a body in order that His Body become your body; in order that His Blood become your blood. 

 

But you are not replaced. In the mystery that is Communion with God, you retain “who you are” yet are conformed to His Image, just as the elements of Communion retain their properties, bread and wine, body and blood, at the same time. You are not replaced. You are saved.

 

In our daily lives, sin does the grinding, not us (Ps 18:42). Ground into the dust. But Jesus, “raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people” (Ps 113:7-8). He looks for those in need of a physician and applies the Balm of Gilead (Jer 8:22), His Word and Sacrament.

 

This cleanses you of your false idols. Ingesting the Body and Blood of Jesus leaves no room for false worship. Flee to this. The Last Day has come upon you and the Abomination is inside you. Where shall you flee? To the Mountain of God; Christ: to the cross of God at this Altar. And there find a pure and holy Lamb, free from all impurities, offering His comfort, peace, and purity to you.

 

There is no refuge in this world, nowhere to run. But the Holy Place has never left earth. He dwells among us forever. He tells us to draw near, eat and drink, and thus see the Mountain that is Christ our Lord, then to have our lowly bodies changed into His glorious Body (Phil 3:21).

 

 

Death's Conqueror [Trinity 24]

 

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Isaiah 51:9-16

• Colossians 1:9-14

• St. Matthew 9:18-26

Grace to you and peace from Him Who is and Who was and Who is to come; from Jesus Christ the faithful Witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

                  
Who speaks to you in today’s Gospel saying:

“Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, ‘Take heart, daughter; your faith has saved you.’ And instantly the woman was saved.”

 
Thus far from our Gospel reading today, which is included in God’s Word to give us heart, to give us courage in faith alone. Jesus is death’s Conqueror and Faith’s Giver and He does not leave us in the face of death or even in death. Holy Scripture points to God’s Will for us, on the cross, that we may remember we are mortal and live a life of forgiveness.
 
With the passing of All Saints Day and having glanced into heaven and the promise that waits for our arrival, the Church turns towards the Last Day, in these final Sundays of the Church Year. Not that we haven’t been staring down death all the Sundays of the Trinity Season, but today’s staring contest is a little different.
 
Death is the last enemy to be defeated and we have yet to face it. We feel we get close when our loved ones die, but facing it ourselves is on a whole different level. This is the lesson we learn from today’s two women in the Gospel. One died young, the other had to watch her life slowly drain from her, day after day. 
 
This we must face. It cannot be avoided. No matter the good days, no matter the bad days, when the Boss says its time to go, its time to go. That’s true and yet not true. God did not create death and He does not use it in that way. He uses death, allows death we should say, in order to accomplish His Will. That is all that matters. His Will. His Honor. His Name’s Sake.
 
This Will, Honor, and Name are all so mysterious for us. In our sin, we fail to see God and anything He is doing. At best we interpret His action through the lens of our own actions, which is a poor, sinful measure to use. This leads to misunderstanding and unbelief because if God is all powerful, why doesn’t He end all the unpleasantries today? Just like that.
 
Listen to the hint the Lord gives us in Ezekiel 36 (v.22-23), “Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.”
 
Through You. Now we can take this in a few ways. The simplest way would be to chalk it up to miracles. That Jesus proves He is God by performing magic healings and feedings and counselling sessions on us, people. Technically, that is “through you” because He is using bodies to show His power. So, “through the miracles performed upon man, I vindicate my holiness”, or something like that.
 
However, not everyone received a miracle from Jesus, which would amount to His holiness not being very much. Another way would be to see that the Lord takes His own Body. “Through you” could also mean that God is going to do His work, but as a man, subjecting Himself to the same limitations. 
 
This is closer to the truth, because now God is doing the work Himself, not just through proxies. He has taken on our flesh and a reasonable soul, that is He is just like us in every way. He is doing the work behind a mask, we would say. A mask that allows Him to live among us without the mountains melting and the seas boiling.
 
A third, less truthful way to understand it, at least by itself, would be to believe that God has left the work to us. That somehow Jesus finished most of the work, but left some loose ends for us to figure out and tie up, proving that we are true followers of His Word. Less truthful, but still some truth in it.
 
Jesus takes a fourth way. Jesus does perform miracles, but they are not offered infinitely. Jesus does work in His own Body, but that is still “through God” and not “through man”. He also does allow His Name to stand upon our foreheads in baptism, but we are poor representatives of God.
 
While all these are in action, in Christ, the fourth Way is all of those, but most importantly, Jesus vindicates and creates His holiness through sinners! His rule is not an Iron Fist of mandates, but the meek and mild Gospel. His Way is the Way of the Cross, the bearing of the sins of transgressors, rebelling against His Will, His Honor, and His Name in order that He win them all back! 
 
Repent! It is not clean work. The Lord’s Will is to create things that are Very Good, as He said in the beginning. His honor is to hand all things over to us as caretakers, and He stakes His Name on this transaction, even going so far as to call us “His People”, such that, the real tragedy of sin is: when we commit it, we are publicly declaring that God would sin.
 
Therefore, it is with these same sins that Jesus heads to His bout with death. He does not shoot miracles at sin and death. He does not just use a stand-in to get the work done for Him, neither does He leave it up to us to face such impossible opponents.
 
The weapons He employs and the armor He dons are what have been corrupted by sin, death, and the power of the devil. He is not super-shiny, He is super-bloodied. His tools of salvation amount to betrayal, fatal scourging, injustice, dishonor, unbelief.
 
This is what our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ takes to the cross and grave in His iron grip and when He rises on Easter, they are no longer with Him. Though they are of no use to you, your sin, your death, and your siding with the devil only aided God’s work of salvation. Super-backwards, right? 
 
Now, before you get any funny ideas, we do not sin to make the Gospel abound even more (Rom 6:1). There is no such thing. For all those who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is no more death in Him. There is no more sin in Him. Therefore, there is no more death or sin in you. The Gospel, grace, cannot abound anymore than it already is, in you, in Christ. 
 
You are all on your way to the Last Day, therefore we must gird our loins and keep our lamps burning, as our Lord says in St. Luke 12 (v.35). It is only our lamps of faith that enlighten our eyes to see and our ears to hear that our cries are directed to the Arm of YHWH. The Arm Who made us worthy to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light (Col 1:12) as our Epistle taught.
 
You have been saved, not just made well. That is, the Light of the World has shone light upon you, in your darkness, and has also fed you His Light in His Body and Blood, so that now the Light shines in you, as well. This light is the light of your inheritance. You are a descendant of darkness no longer. 
 
The Church of the Holy Spirit Calls out to you. The Gospel He speaks delivers you from darkness, suffering, and death. And even though those were key to purchasing salvation, that was only for God. For you, there are no such things. For you, you have been given the Kingdom. For you, you have the garment of Christ. For you, you have the touch of Jesus in Word and Sacrament. 
 
His Word and Sacrament He keeps in His Church and these things guide you and keep you within His Will, Honor, and Name. For it is the Will of God to save you. It is the Honor of God to forgive you. It is the Name of God that names you: Saint.
 
Through our Gospel heard today, the Church wishes to say: Look, just as the Lord healed the sick woman the instant she touched His garment, so will it be on the last day when all diseases and suffering will suddenly disappear. And as the maiden was awakened from death by the mighty word of Christ, so will the dead rise up from out their graves and shine with the freshness of youth. 
 
When we visit a cemetery, we could well say in the words of our Savior:
They who lie here in their graves only sleep. What till now we have called death is but a sleep.
Yes, let us believe firmly in the resurrection of the body.
 

Evening Church work [All Saints Vespers]

 

TEXT ONLY

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Revelation 7:2-17

• 1 John 3:1-3

• St. Matthew 5:1-12

Grace to you all and Peace from God our Father and the LORD Jesus, the Christ.
 
Jesus speaks today, in your hearing:

“Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

 
It may be that the fathers of our church had something specific in mind, placing the celebration of the Reformation the day before the holy All Saint’s Day. It may be that they wanted to place their historic event in a humiliating place, such as the evening before a holier, better day to teach us just what the work of men accomplishes, compared to the work of God.
 
First off, what is All Saint’s? From the early Christian church, there was always the celebration of martyrs, those believers who faced down governors, kings, and wild beasts for the faith. Having been brought up on false charges, these Christians gave their lives rather than give up their faith.
 
So it is that these examples of brave souls were remembered with reverence and as prime examples of the faith that moves mountains. From these repeated memorials of the martyrs over time, an official Church festival day was created for all those who have died in the faith, not just the extreme cases. 
 
All Saints was officially recognized in the 9th century to be celebrated on the First of November. All Saints is how we say it today, but it means all sanctified, all holy and was first named All Hallows Day, as in “Our Father Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name”. 
 
So we celebrate all those who’s labor is finished, who have completed the race, and fought the good fight. We celebrate the beginning of the morning of Easter forever, rejoicing in the Light of Christ which no darkness can overcome, Holy to the Lord.
 
As the Lord created heaven and earth and there was evening and morning the first day, so the Church takes her celebrating pattern from Him. The celebration of All Hallows begins the evening before and it was called All Hallows Eve, or today, Halloween.
 
The Lord begins His Work in darkness and finishes in His Light. The Church likewise, does its work in the darkness of sin, death, and the power of the devil, but finishes in the Light of Christ, having finally gained His side, in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness, the Day He returns.
 
The Reformation, being the evening before All Saints, is symbolic of our struggle, the Church Militant’s struggle on earth. Surrounded by darkness and a world full of devils, the Word remains, a shining light in the darkness, though the darkness knows Him not.
 
But by faith, the light shines on us. The Gospel is given and Christ declares sinners Justified in the darkness before the resurrection. In truth, the darkness deepens and falls all around us, but Christ leaves us not. He points towards the East where for certain, the sky is slowly brightening, announcing the coming Last Day.
 
For as beautiful as the Beatitudes are, they are a tribulation for us. It is easy to be blessed in the ways Jesus prescribes every once in a while, but all the time? Impossible. Imagine the energy, imagine the time, imagine the strain on our psyche.
 
And that’s the good works God has for us! This doesn’t even mention our sins, but it doesn't have to. We already feel the sting of Jesus's words and already know that we are dwelling in the land of twilight, the land of evening. 
 
This is why, when the sun is darkened and the moon turned to blood, our Lord rested in the Tomb. His rest in the tomb was a part of His three-day work of salvation for us. First that He enter the dark and it kill Him. Second that He release the prisoners from hell’s grasp. And third, that He inaugurate a morning that has no end.
 
Surpassing the evening of tribulation is the Morning of eternal Easter, where every tear is wiped away and every hair from the head returned. For more than just being blessed is being made in the image of God, that is, baptized into the death and resurrection of the Body and Blood of the Christ.
 
For lo there breaks a yet more glorious day. The saints triumphant rise in bright array. The King of Glory passses on His way. And as we remember the saints that have gone before us this year [Clyde Tressler, Carl Younkin, Marlin Georg, Arlis Coccagna, Janice Georg, Wayne Georg, and Tom Williams], we believe we follow after them as they follow after Jesus. We believe the promise given to us, “This day you will be with me”. We hope in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
 
And He who’s hope is in Christ, those hopes meet no denial and are of God, preferred.